Publication of the opening lecture by Pr Edith Heard

Edith Heard

Epigenetics and Cellular Memory

" How is the information contained in our genes read, memorized and interpreted? What mechanisms control gene activity within an individual or across generations? Understanding these mechanisms is an essential part of our understanding of living organisms.

Epigenetics studies how genome reading is influenced by cellular history. Since the sequencing of the complete human genome at the beginning of the ^21st century, epigenetics has also raised hopes that we are "more" than the sequence of our genes. This idea is undoubtedly behind the tremendous explosion of interest in this discipline. "

Heard E., Epigenetics and Cellular Memory, Paris, Collège de France/Fayard, coll. " Leçons inaugurales du Collège de France ",^no. 232, May 2013, 64 p.

ISBN : 978-2-2136-7770-5
Price : 10,20 €
Publication : May 22, 2013

Edith Heard is a geneticist. After studying natural sciences at Cambridge University, she obtained her PhD from the Imperial Cancer Research Fund in London. She heads the Genetics and Developmental Biology unit and the Mammalian Epigenesis and Development team at the Institut Curie. Since 2012, she has held the Epigenetics and Cellular Memory Chair at the Collège de France.